A boon to having a ridiculous amount of plants/herbs: self seeders.
Many years of letting the plants "just go" has made my garden basil/parsley/cilantro/oregano (a perennial.. I know, but it's flowered and seeded too!)/garlic (off shoot bulbs, yada)/Egyptian walking onion (YES!)/dill (sort of) and now recently feverfew, California poppy and bells of Ireland seem to be going on autopilot. I find my India mustard to be easily self seeding too, but I know I'm supposed to "rotate" my beds and etc to avoid pests and disease. I try to tear up the mustard from the bed each year and replant it in a different place, but those everlasting seeds always crop right back up in the bed or wherever I've dragged the plant off to.
Not that I mind (I eat all the errant little child plants), but it can be a little weird when I find self sown seedlings in the garden path or in the flower bed or by the trash can.
Ah, an entirely self seeded vegetable/herb garden is THE perfect garden for me...
Diane Meucci at Gardens Oy Vey has self seeded Siberian kale ALL over her nursery, not just for looks, but for eatin' too. Definitely a worthy goal to aspire to.
On top of the self seeders, I'm working towards the perennial vegetable garden and have the asparagus bed, mache/corn lettuce/lambsquarters, (hopefully sunchokes), strawberries and garlic down. I'll probably be getting rhubarb sometime soon-ish from my awesome mother in law. Artichokes are a possibility, but seems a bit limiting for the space they use and I understand that sunflower buds are just as nice.
I'm still working on getting the horseradish to take to the pot I've been babying it in, but it was an abysmal mess last year. Incredible for horseradish too.
I had an air potato plant that I was worried would be invasive but never got to eat it. Then I lost the little seed air potatoes in the great frost/amongst the vines.
This book: Perennial Vegetables: From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener's Guide to Over 100 Delicious and Easy to Grow Edibles caught my eye a while back and I am somewhat interested, but I think it's geared towards those who are lucky enough to live in very nice zones, ie 8/9+
If you live in the right climate, lots of vegetables can become perennial. I hear in Florida eggplants and tomatoes are known to live just about forever .
Either way, I can't move my garden to Florida (and I'm not a huge fan of beaches anyway). So it's best to make do, get tricky with Mother Nature and build cold frames. Lots of them.
Showing posts with label cold frames. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cold frames. Show all posts
Monday, March 15, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Still waiting for spring to bust out all over
Here and there I find some signs that things are warming up and I can enjoy my garden once again:
Lemon flowers trying to completely unfurl:
The temptation to try to pry open the flowers/buds is great as I want to smell them and get to pollinating them for fruit production! *Poke poke*
Maybe there are a few lemons that will develop! (I've had a few of these swollen looking like they're going to become lemon things before only for them to not become lemons and die, so I don't want to keep my hopes up).
Outside things are stretchin' out:
Columbine leaves unfurling from a cute ball!
Cheap anemones that I never thought would make it having survived the crazy cold and frost and snow, showing a bud! (pardon the terrible pics, things focus when I adjust on my camera screen but then look terrible on the computer. Bad camera or glasses... Too much light too, I need to get out that shade thing for pics like this)
I also have Bells of Ireland seedlings still making it after all the nasty weather. I hope that they'll flower, nifty looking blossoms and spicy scent!
Some goals I realized I wanted to accomplish beyond vegetable gardening this year:
(1) More bird houses- I'd like more birds to eat any nasties in the garden and after having some indian strawberries take over as ground cover, I had some great entertainment last year watching them fight over the berries
(2) Get that bat house up (again) (maybe to the roof?)- I've had this blasted bat house for 2 years only to have poles that I made to put it up on fall down and too much tree cover in the way for (supposed appropriate placement is clear of trees) them to be attracted to the house. I want bats! I want fewer mosquitoes biting me and turning me into nasty walking bumpy itchy human this summer! We'll see....
(3) More flower flowers- for attracting pollinators and hummingbirds (and because it does look nice). I have this ajuga and heuchera and mondo grass that I actually tried to kill (turn over a million times) that were here at the house when we got here and won't die, so since I am starting to appreciate stubborn plants to fill in spaces, I think I'll move them to somewhere a little more prominent other than under my feet. I've acquired a fair amount of perennials that need to be divided and seeds that I've saved for a while, so perhaps it's a good time to get those going for flowers for next year. Darn slow growing perennials :)
(4) Make a cold frame (FINALLY)- before this winter. It's rather depressing to not have any fresh vegetables (other than leafy greens) from the garden over the winter. As I am being gifted with some window panes this year, Iwant to feel like a real pro by growing something special in the winter this year. Any ideas? I know I can grow mustards, chards and pak choi w/o a cold frame outside. So, while I can technically grow nearly anything, except tomatoes perhaps (not tall enough... unless I get a miniature variety hmmm) in the frame I could use some ideas.
Hope you all are prepped/prepping that preparing at a faster rate than me and that you haven't felt like this was the longest winter of your life like I have!
Lemon flowers trying to completely unfurl:
The temptation to try to pry open the flowers/buds is great as I want to smell them and get to pollinating them for fruit production! *Poke poke*
Maybe there are a few lemons that will develop! (I've had a few of these swollen looking like they're going to become lemon things before only for them to not become lemons and die, so I don't want to keep my hopes up).
Outside things are stretchin' out:
Columbine leaves unfurling from a cute ball!
Cheap anemones that I never thought would make it having survived the crazy cold and frost and snow, showing a bud! (pardon the terrible pics, things focus when I adjust on my camera screen but then look terrible on the computer. Bad camera or glasses... Too much light too, I need to get out that shade thing for pics like this)
I also have Bells of Ireland seedlings still making it after all the nasty weather. I hope that they'll flower, nifty looking blossoms and spicy scent!
Some goals I realized I wanted to accomplish beyond vegetable gardening this year:
(1) More bird houses- I'd like more birds to eat any nasties in the garden and after having some indian strawberries take over as ground cover, I had some great entertainment last year watching them fight over the berries
(2) Get that bat house up (again) (maybe to the roof?)- I've had this blasted bat house for 2 years only to have poles that I made to put it up on fall down and too much tree cover in the way for (supposed appropriate placement is clear of trees) them to be attracted to the house. I want bats! I want fewer mosquitoes biting me and turning me into nasty walking bumpy itchy human this summer! We'll see....
(3) More flower flowers- for attracting pollinators and hummingbirds (and because it does look nice). I have this ajuga and heuchera and mondo grass that I actually tried to kill (turn over a million times) that were here at the house when we got here and won't die, so since I am starting to appreciate stubborn plants to fill in spaces, I think I'll move them to somewhere a little more prominent other than under my feet. I've acquired a fair amount of perennials that need to be divided and seeds that I've saved for a while, so perhaps it's a good time to get those going for flowers for next year. Darn slow growing perennials :)
(4) Make a cold frame (FINALLY)- before this winter. It's rather depressing to not have any fresh vegetables (other than leafy greens) from the garden over the winter. As I am being gifted with some window panes this year, Iwant to feel like a real pro by growing something special in the winter this year. Any ideas? I know I can grow mustards, chards and pak choi w/o a cold frame outside. So, while I can technically grow nearly anything, except tomatoes perhaps (not tall enough... unless I get a miniature variety hmmm) in the frame I could use some ideas.
Hope you all are prepped/prepping that preparing at a faster rate than me and that you haven't felt like this was the longest winter of your life like I have!
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